No Subject

Recently, there has been some talk on here concerning anonymous
remailers and harassment.  

I don't think we will ever exist in a society where anonymous information
sources will be eliminated.  Even 50 years ago, the "rumour mill" was
the equivalent of the modern anonymous remailer.  And yes, harassing
rumours got started and hurt people. 

But the fault, as I see it, lies not so much in those who started 
the rumour, but more in the people who believed the rumour without
trust in the source.

And that is where cryptographically secure models of trust comes in.
If we are going to continue to be coherent in our future virtual world,
we are going to have to "filter out" information which originates from
sources which we do not have a cryptographic web of trust to.

Does this make any sense?

-Thomas

(I'm not signing this message on purpose ;)

Thomas thus said:

>And that is where cryptographically secure models of trust comes in.
>If we are going to continue to be coherent in our future virtual world,
>we are going to have to "filter out" information which originates from
>sources which we do not have a cryptographic web of trust to.

I understand the predictament and security that it entails. However, I am
not sure as I understand you, that this is a good solution. Let's say if
everyone jumps on the cryptographic bandwagon, how does the web of trust
help out the end user who's feelings have been hurt? Or if the user is not
in the web of trust does that eliminate their information from the field?

Sorry, its late and I probably should'nt post but what the hell.
Probably get flamed in the morning.

>Does this make any sense?

I decided for about 2 weeks to accept only PGP messages as authenticated, so
to speak -- and it sucked even friends that have PGP and such would not
go in for the idea of a total security blanket.

Just my .02, probably give another .02 in the next 12 hours.

Paul
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